Frostbite putting heat on Trashers

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Richard Gregory THE NEWS-TIMES

Published 1:00 am, Monday, April 3, 2006

DANBURY - The race for the lead in the United Hockey League's Eastern Division got a whole lot closer this weekend, as the second-place Adirondack Frostbite swept a home-and-home series with the first-place Danbury Trashers.

The Frostbite beat the Trashers 3-1 Sunday in front of a sellout crowd at the
Danbury Ice Arena
, and now trail the Trashers by just six points with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
"It's going to be a battle right to the end now," said Trashers forward
David Hymovitz
as he and his teammates skated with fans and signed autographs following the game. "We could've taken control this weekend, but we let it slip up."
The Trashers were coming off a 4-2 loss in Glens Falls, N.Y., Saturday.
"This was a hard weekend on us. We obviously didn't give enough," Trashers coach

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said. "We have to get back on track."
Troy Smith
put the Trashers up 1-0 13:09 into the first period, beating Frostbite goalie
Kris Tebbs
with a wrist shot from the point for his fifth goal of the season;
Jean-Michel Daoust
assisted.
Trashers goalie
Sylvain Daigle
made a brilliant save in the final minute of the first period to preserve the one-goal lead, stopping
Greg Koehler
's shot on a power-play rush. Daigle stopped Koehler again in the opening seconds of the second period.
The Trashers looked to add to their lead four minutes into the second period, but Tebbs made a nice save to stop Hymovitz from close range after Daoust set him up with a nice centering pass.
The Trashers had controlled the momentum up to that point, but the Frostbite scored two goals in a two-minute span in the second period to take the lead for good.

Hugo Belanger
tied the game with a power-play goal at 7:32 of the second period, less than a minute after the Trashers'
Mario Larocque
was sent to the penalty box for roughing. That was the first of six penalties the Trashers took in the last 14 minutes of the second period.
"That was a complete game-changer, a momentum-changer, and we didn't recover," Hymovitz said. "It was a domino effect. We kept taking penalties.
"If we do that in the playoffs, whether it's against these guys or Muskegon or Rockford, we might as well pack our bags," Hymovitz added.
Two minutes after Belanger tied the game, the Frostbite took a 2-1 lead on an unassisted goal by
Ryan Bennett
.
Not long after they took the lead, the Frostbite went on a 5-on-3 power play for four minutes as Danbury's
Shawn Collymore
took a four-minute high-sticking penalty and
Danny Stewart
and
Donny Grover
both received minors, all in a 2½-minute span. With the crowd chanting "De-fense!" the Trashers killed off all three penalties to keep it a one-goal game, thanks in part to the solid goaltending of Daigle (25 saves).
In the final minute of the second period, Trashers defenseman
Luke Sellars
received a five-minute penalty for fighting and a game misconduct for dropping the gloves and roughing up
Sylvain Cloutier
. Cloutier wasn't penalized, so the Frostbite came away with a five-minute power play. Sellars' ejection meant the Trashers had to play the entire third period minus one defenseman.
The Trashers killed off that penalty as well and entered the third period down one goal. They had several big chances to tie the score in the third period, but couldn't get one past Tebbs (34 saves). The Trashers had almost eight minutes of power-play time in the third period - including more than a minute with a two-man advantage - and didn't score.
"Especially being one of the power-play guys, it was completely frustrating," Hymovitz said.
Koehler scored an empty-net goal with 51 seconds remaining to ice the win for Adirondack.
NOTES: The Trashers drew a sellout crowd for the second consecutive game at the Danbury Ice Arena. Three of the last six home games have been sellouts. The Trashers, who play in the smallest arena in the UHL, are ninth out of the 14 teams in attendance, averaging nearly 2,400 fans per game so far this season...
As she has done several times this season, Immaculate High student
Samantha Mingione
drew a roar from the crowd with her rendition of the National Anthem prior to the game. She also sang the National Anthem before the game between the
Danbury Police Department
and the
Danbury Fire Department
Sunday afternoon.